Electric oven connection - 13amp plug?

[w00tman]

Evening all

Cooker decided to break down, so binned it off. Previous oven was a Delonghi that came with a moulded plug attached and went into a normal plug socket behind/off from the back of the oven (it's a standard 60x60 under unit electric oven with separate gas hob).

Just put the replacement in which is a 13amp rated, 2700w max electric oven and it came with a normal cord but no plug. Presumably no issue with sticking a 13amp plug on the end as before? sadly the instructions are chinglish and talk more about european fittings than UK!

I'm going to speak to a spark on monday if it's a big deal - just threw me that it seemed to be a simple plug-on job but then didn't actually come with a plug. Definitely a different connection than the big hard-wired jobby though, just a normal black lead - albeit sans plug.

[dickymint]

I suppose it's a question of what other appliances are on the same circuit and on at the same time?

[SS2.]

2700w is a little over 11 amps.

I think you'd be very wise to check with a qualified spark before trying to connect the oven to a ring main via a 13a plug.

[Alucidnation]

Any cooking appliance over 2kw SHOULD have its own dedicated circuit from the consumer unit, however, taking diversity into account, 2.7kw will be fine on a 13A plug.

[Mattt]

Is it the ring main or dedicated feed (but just with a 3 pin socket rather than wired directly in)?

You should be able to easily test it yourself.

[richatnort]

just going through the process of getting a oven in my new kitchen and i've been told that if it doesn't come with a plug it needs to be on it's own circuit because it wacks out more then 3 KW of electricity and is unsafe to have on a plug.

Hope this helps!

[hairyben]

Its permissable but poor practice, fixed loads over 2kW shouldn't really be on a plug/socket evan though it's rated at 3kW IME sustained high loads are a lot more likely to make melty or crispy.

If you *have* to do it use a quality plug/socket like crabtree

[DrDeAtH]

A fused spur(unswitched) would be preferable over a 13amp plug for a single oven.

[Murph7355]

Do it properly and don't use a plug. You'll only have hassles later and have to redo it.

[Alucidnation]

What hassles would those be?

[Pheo]

Indeed, my oven came with a 13a plug and I've not died yet. I'd also argue an oven isn't necessarily a sustained high load - the oven cycles on and off to maintain a temperature, that doesn't mean it's on all the time.

My oven is on a dedicated radial circuit from the CU, and the socket itself goes through an on wall double pole 20A isolator. It was installed by my fully qualified electrician.

I think the critical question here is, what does the manufacturer say in the instructions? The regs state that you should follow them. So if the instructions say you can fit a plug, fit a plug. If they say it needs to be hard wired, hard wire it.

[brman]

you need to think about the reasons why it is recommended a fixed appliance over 2kW should be hard wired.
In terms of current draw, diversity etc there is no real difference between a 3kW portable fan heater and a 3kW oven. One will have a plug and the other is recommended to be hard wired.

The problem with fixed appliances is that the plug is never removed from the socket. So it sits there slowly building up tarnishing etc on the plug/socket contacts which will eventually become high resistance. That leads to generation of heat and in bad cases the plug/socket melting or catching fire.

Theoretically this is not a problem with portable appliances as you will unplug/plug it in to move it around which wipes the contacts clean. However in practice it is not uncommon for fan heaters etc to be left plugged in for years and so not uncommon to see heat damaged sockets when you inspect them.

Hence it is good practice to hard wire any high current appliance that not will be moved, if you choose not to then use a decent quality socket/plug and unplug/replug it a few times every 6 months or so. Any signs of yellowing/blackening or cracking around the socket holes tells you you have a problem.

[Murph7355]

Alucidnation said:

What hassles would those be?

Not an entirely identical situation but the people who installed the oven at my place didn't do their calcs right (/at all) with the cabling needed and the oven kept tripping out when you tried to use more than a third of it's facilities (probably never an issue for them as they were old and ready meals for 2 tend not to need much heating I'm told). The only solution was to run some proper cable. Never been an issue since.

Hassles....?

Well as it's only plugged in if he goes that route, probably limited to not being able to cook his dinner as quickly if it ends up tripping out as he won't be able to use the oven to full capacity. Sod's law dictates that this will 100% definitely happen when it's the least convenient time to do so.

Will also depend what else he has connected to the same circuit.

And, of course, if he's installing a kitchen around it then having to remove it later if it does trip out will also be an additional ball ache.

From what he's posted, that oven seems to be at the edge of what a 13A circuit will cope with. And ovens can very much chew the max of their rating IME (as measured by a sparks mate of mine). If it were mine, I would want a dedicated circuit run. Both to ensure I could use the appliance to its full and to leave no doubts about safety.